1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to dispensers for liquid soap and, more particularly, to automated dispensers for dispensing liquid soap in response to initiation of a flow of water.
2. Description of Prior Art
Public and commercial wash stations usually include apparatus for dispensing powder or liquid soap. The soap powder dispensers often have a vertically translatable manually actuated closure member for exposing an aperture at the bottom of a soap powder container. The powder soap drops through the aperture and usually into the user's hand(s) placed therebeneath. A dispenser of this type, while usually very effective, suffers from several drawbacks. First, a substantial amount of soap powder falls onto the underlying surface, whether it be a section of a wash basin, the floor or other element. This dropped soap creates a mess if it becomes moistened or wetted. Whether in powdered, wetted or liquid form, efforts must be made for periodic cleaning. Second, manual contact with the closure member is necessary. Such manual contact permits the spread of bacterial and viral contamination. Other soap powder dispensers are known which include a push button, a horizontally actuated member or a pivoting member for dispensing a quantity of powder soap; again, manual contact is necessary.
Liquid soap dispensers have been in use for many years. Dispensation of the soap will occur upon reciprocal translation of a plunger, a push button release mechanism or simply tilting the dispenser to force outflow of soap through an aperture. All of these liquid soap dispensers require manual actuation of one element or another. Such actuation serves as a vehicle for transmission of bacterial and viral contaminants to subsequent users.
There also exist pneumatically actuated mechanisms for dispensing soap in response to a triggering signal. These devices require a relatively substantial amount of power, usually in the form of electrical power, to maintain the air or gas pressure necessary to operate the pneumatic dispenser. For practical reasons, batteries are not a viable source for the electrical power. Electrically operated motor/pump units are known for dispensing liquid soap. Because of the magnitude of the current drawn to operate the electric motor, battery operation is generally not considered a practical and viable solution.
Because conventional electrical power (120 volts AC) will create an electrical hazard in proximity to a wash basin, or the like, use of conventional electrical power to provide power for a soap dispenser is generally not considered a viable alternative. Hence, most soap dispensers found, whether for soap powder or liquid soap, are of the manually actuated type discussed above.